Noel

NOEL

(7-Oct-2011):

The Noel family dominated Carcar politically from 1879 when Florencio Noel assumed as gobernadorcillo up to after the World War II when his son, Maximino Noel, served as congressman of the third district (of which Carcar was a part) until 1965. In the 1900s, this local hold had been successfully challenged by Mariano Mercado, who, and whose faction, for some decades ruled the town, even as Maximino still held sway of the congressional district.

A mestizo Sangley (Chinese-descended) family, the Noel originated from Parian and Noels still reside in the Parian area up to the present. Probably the first Noel [sigh] to arrive in Carcar was Anacleta Noel, widowed of her Regis husband who had been a cabeza in Parian. Her Regis children subsequently married in Carcar.

Anacleta married again, to Leocadio Cui Jaen, in Carcar in 1867, he of another city family which had migrated earlier to Carcar. Leocadio became gobernadorcillo of Carcar by 1875, around the time Florencio Noel had married Leocadio’s own niece, Filomena Jaen, started a family and built a house in the town.

It was probably Anacleta who showed the way for Florencio Noel to follow to Carcar. Florencio had mestizo Spanish features, a physical characteristic that would have immediately raised him up in stature colonially among the darker people in the town. And yet the mestizo Sangley racial classification he was tagged with indicate his having Spanish blood only from an illegitimate source. Family stories tell of a friar father, although it’s also possible that it was his mother herself who had had a Spaniard father, and from whom his looks descended. But the padre no conocido affixed on records of his, do sound more convincing that it was his own no-conocido father who was Spanish, or Spanish mestizo.

Florencio’s mother was Benedicta Noel. Florencio used the formal name Florencio Noel y Mercado, and thus it may have been Benedicta’s mother who was a Mercado, or she also was an illegitimate child of a Mercado father, which is also a possibility. Meanwhile, Anacleta’s parents were Vicente Noel and Leoncia Agaton (also as Osmeña), both mestizos Sangleys. I have not been able to establish the exact relation of Florencio and Benedicta to Anacleta and her parents. Nor of Leoncia to Severino Agaton (Osmeña), the grandfather of President Osmeña.

A third Noel branch from Cebu City also settled in Sangat circa 1880s, the line descending from a Martin Noel whose parents were Luis and Eugenia Rosello.

The Florencio Noel branch seemed to have close relationships with a particular Noel family in Parian and with the one which settled in Asturias and Northwest Cebu, both lines also having mestizo Spanish features. The former’s descendants include the Medalle doctors of Bonifacio st. in the city, and latter’s, Bishop Christian Noel, now Bishop of Talibon (Bohol).

My father is Floro Misoles Noel Sr. One of the 6children of Restituto Noel, who is from Parian Cebu City and migrated to Maasin Leyte. After WW2 my father together with his elder brother and sister, migrated to Davao Province, to avail the land ownership for war veterans. As far as i can remember, my father used to collect lot rental along parian/t.padilla area which his parents owned. He also mention some of his relatives are from asturias.